UMass football coach finally cuts ties with Northeastern

For Don Brown, Saturday's University of Massachusetts football game with Northeastern can't be over soon enough.

By game's end, the last ties to Brown's four-year tenure at Northeastern will be history, a chapter in his life in which he was proud of until it ended in a bitter contract dispute.

UMass (3-2, 1-1 Colonial Athletic Association) is coming off its first conference win while the Huskies (2-3, 1-0) have won two straight, including a CAA win over Towson last week.

The Minutemen under Brown are unbeaten against Northeastern, 4-0 since Brown took the reins in 2004. In fact, the last time the Huskies beat UMass was in 2002 when Brown was the coach.

His four-year tenure was highlighted by a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament in 2002, a coaching job that earned him conference coach of the year honors.

When Mark Whipple left UMass for the NFL after the 2003 season, Brown chose to return to the school where he helped the Minutemen win a national championship in 1998 as the defensive coordinator.

But Northeastern did not want to let Brown go, and found a judge to rule Brown was in breach of his contract. The situation was settled when Brown was forced to sit out the first two games of the 2004 season.

The whole situation weighed heavily on the Spencer native, and he is anxious to have it all behind him after he coaches his last game against some of the players he recruited to go to Northeastern.

"The only people that are left are my recruiting class, those kids, the Orios, the Thomases, the Mandevilles, all those guys are guys I recruited," Brown said. "I'll be glad when this one's behind us because then there is no association because it certainly left a sour taste in my mouth the way it was handled at the end."

The Minutemen are riding high after a very good 17-7 win over Delaware. UMass had been struggling on defense until holding the Blue Hens to just 167 yards of total offense.

The offense was strong as well, compiling 459 yards of offense, but four turnovers kept the game from being a blowout.

"We haven't even touched where we want to be at right now and that's a good thing I think," UMass quarterback Liam Coen said. "To have our defense play the way it played I think it gives our team confidence."

While Northeastern has won its last two, the Huskies still rank last in the CAA in pass defense (283.6 yards per game) and total defense (432.0). In contrast, Coen leads the second-best passing attack in the conference, averaging better than 251 yards a game.

Northeastern quarterback Anthony Orio has been a solid performer as well, throwing just three interceptions this season, the second fewest in the CAA.

One of the biggest advantages for the Huskies is that it is a home game for them. Parsons Field is always a difficult place for visiting teams because of the small accommodations.

And UMass is 1-2 on the road, having allowed 150 points in those three games.

"Hey, we're on the road," Brown said. "I don't know if we've played a complete game on the road yet, so that's a challenge."